NJ Turnpike Authority approves design money for disputed $11B widening project

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority board approved spending $149 million to complete final design on one section of a controversial highway widening project through Jersey City.

The contract awarded to Parsons Transportation Group will finalize design for a project to double the volume the Newark Bay Bridge could handle. The bridge currently has four lanes, with two in each direction.

It would be replaced by twin bridges with four lanes in each direction. Construction is estimated to cost $6.2 billion, start in 2026 and take 10 years to complete.

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The section approved Tuesday covers “between mileposts 1.3 and 2.9, which includes the bridge over Newark Bay and the approach spans,” said Tom Feeney, Turnpike Authority spokesman. “In the coming months, there will be two more design contracts presented to the board,” he said — one for the section between Interchange 14 and milepost 1.3, the other for the section from milepost 2.9 to Interchange 14A.

Newark Bay Bridge connects Newark and Bayonne across the Newark Bay. Photo taken in Bayonne, NJ on Thursday Oct. 26, 2023.

The existing bridge, formally called the Vincent R. Casciano Memorial Bridge, spans Newark Bay and connects Newark to Bayonne. It’s part of the Turnpike’s Newark Bay extension which sends traffic from the main Turnpike route onto Route 78 into Bayonne and Jersey City, ending at the approach to the Holland Tunnel.

Backlash over pollution concerns

The bridge replacement is one piece of an almost $11 billion program that would replace and expand certain parts of the 8.1-mile elevated highway. Its price tag — the largest for a project in Turnpike history — and potential to increase traffic and pollution are among the reasons it has received significant backlash from environmental advocates.

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Jersey City resident Talia Schwartz, whose son has asthma, asked the authority during Tuesday’s board meeting to work more closely with transit agencies to find alternatives to reduce congestion instead of adding highway lanes. U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez suggested dedicating one of the new lanes to buses.

“Jersey City has an F air quality rating and the Turnpike is planning to … add more cars and more lanes to the highway right near where I live and according to their statement this will be doing an acceptable level of harm,” Schwartz said. “We should be taking actions that reverse the trend of bad air quality.”

U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez suggested dedicating one of the lanes of the proposed new Newark Bay Bridge to buses.

A report published in 2020 by Jacobs Engineering, hired as a consultant for the Turnpike, found that the bridge could be rehabilitated for $260 million, though the authors recommended replacing it to increase the weight it could handle.

Emmanuelle Morgen said she developed asthma when she lived near the opening of the Holland Tunnel, near where some of the Turnpike’s highway widening portions of the project would take place, which cleared up when she moved. She called on the Turnpike to do more to involve and respond to the public.

“I’m asking the Turnpike Authority to listen to the public, to come meet with the public, to have real public forums where the public can respond —the public is not stupid,” she said. “Listen to the concerns of the community before making decisions.”

Lisa Navarro, the Turnpike Authority’s supervising engineer on the project, has argued that the extension provides needed access to local communities, the ports and marine terminals, and Newark Liberty Airport, as well as services, recreation and entertainment in Bayonne, Jersey City and Newark.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Turnpike Authority approves design money for disputed $11B widening project